Pamukkale Natural Park-Antalya

Day 7, November 18, 2013--Pamukkale Natural Park, Carpet Factory, and Antalya

Spending the night at the Herakles takes some creative thinking. Our door did not seem safe because there was no secondary lock that you can secure inside the room. Anyone can easily open it using a key or whatever available. We had to move the luggage bench over to block the door in case of any unnecessary intrusion in the middle of the night. Not the best option but we felt much better without worrying too much about what would happen.

Again, we will have a long drive today from Pamukkale to Antalya.

A quiet morning at the Herakles Thermal Hotel, the outdoor pool.

Breakfast at this hotel was pretty good, with plenty of choices. I found out that even though the restaurants provided bread, they don't usually provide butter except in the morning. I wonder why?

Pamukkale Natural Park

After breakfast, we were taken back towards Pamukkale and visited the Pamukkale Natural Park at the bottom of the "Cotton Castle". We only stopped for a short time, taking pictures, but it was just a beautiful sight. There was a camel at the entrance of the park but not sure if we have to pay to get a picture of it, so I just passed on having a picture of the only camel we saw on this trip.

Some of the members in our group needed to use the ATM and there were several of them here.

Waiting on the bus, our favorite section, all the way in the back.

Look at all the ATM machines out there!

Carpet Factory

Well, not sure if it was a factory, maybe better call it a carpet cooperatives. Mainly a place to get tourists to buy the very expensive carpets. This is suppose to be one of the country's biggest hand-made carpet cooperatives and also our first shopping stop. This one was definitely bigger than the one we visited in 2010 where we had lunch at near Ephesus but the sales pitch were all the same. After the introduction, the demonstration of rug making by local weavers and silk threading (pretty much like what we saw in China), we were taken to one of the huge rooms where cameras are prohibited. Apple tea, juice, or a local alcoholic drink was served. Then they rolled out one after another of their beautiful carpets to attract potential customers. Of course, several people in our group dug into their pockets and purchased their favorite ones. We, on the other hand, just excused ourselves and admired some more of their products before exiting the building.

colorful!

silk

This is a silk carpet and we were told that you can see through if it's real silk carpet.

Waiting at the outdoor cafe...

...with many other tourists.

"Yeah... that's how we feel too!"

Back on the bus, bus #3 American European Travel.

Time for lunch. This time the "fluantes" were not as good as the last place we had them. But they had some kind of stewed chicken which was not bad.

Food stations

Big selection of salad items at every meal.

Again, skewers were rationed after being grilled out front.

He was continuously stuffing grilled meat inside that huge sandwich. Wondering who will be getting THAT!?

Restaurant where we had lunch.

After lunch we continued our drive crossing the Taurus Mountains to the Mediterranean Coast. When we arrived in Antalya after a few hours, this was what we saw...an amazing sunset.

Now we are at the coast of the Mediterranean and the city of Antalya where we will be spending our last two nights while in Turkey.